Year In Review: Sweat, tears, and champagne.

I have a love-hate relationship with 2017. While it has been my breakthrough year full of unforgettable events and memories, it has also been one of the most exhausting years of my life.

It reminds me of all the twisty roads that are hard to drive, but also most scenic and wonderful.

This is my 2017.

Here's all that happened. Professional- and personal-wise.

Record year

2017 was my record business year. I easily doubled my revenue since last year. In fact, I closed so many good deals in the final months of 2017 that it all points towards doubling my revenue again in 2018.

A quick breakdown reveals that 65% of my generated revenue came from client work, 20% from mentoring, and 15% from products.

The fact that I'm proud of most though is that 30% of my current clientele has been with me for more than a year. That successfully proves that Super Spicy Media not only helps a company grow to a certain point but successfully supports further growth beyond that as well.

While I'll work hard to expand my clientele in 2018, I'll make it one of my biggest goals to grow alongside my existing clients and successfully support their endeavors.

Expanding my team

Running a 6-figure business isn't easy. Last year I finally took the plunge and hired a personal assistant. It was truly an essential hire as I didn't have time to organize my meetings and keep up with day-to-day operations.

This year I expanded my team once again and hired a Facebook Ads Expert to help me with client work. She'll be taking care of daily optimizations and helping me plan and launch new campaigns, so I can focus on a more high-level approach for my clients and reinvent their strategies to help them grow even faster and more efficient.

Her help will also allow me to spend more time on growing my business, sharing my knowledge online, and expanding my services further. My current growth is a solid proof that there's a massive need for my services. And I'm more than ready to tap into that even more in the year to come.

Conferences

Last year I made a goal to speak at five conferences this year, excluding online summits. If I wouldn't make a last-minute cancellation of my last conference talk in 2017 due to personal reasons, I would easily fulfill that goal.

Besides sharing knowledge with different audiences eager to learn more about Facebook Ads and launch their first campaign as soon as possible, I truly enjoyed meeting new people and growing my circle of close friends.

The connections I make at these conferences are always incredibly valuable for all parties involved. I cannot wait to help people get started with Facebook Ads in 2018 as well and make new friendships along the way.

If you want to explore a possible collaboration and have me speak at your conference, let's talk.

The Facebook Ads Academy

In July of 2017, I launched an online community called The Facebook Ads Academy, heavily focused on helping small businesses grow with Facebook Ads.

We have regular Office Hours, thematic Workshops, I share all my knowledge with the group, and help them overcome any obstacles they might face when and after launching their campaigns.

While the slots for The Facebook Ads Academy sold out in the first week (I only accept 10 people at a time to keep it as intimate as possible), I failed to onboard new people due to an influx of new clients and increase in client work.

In 2018 I'll be making some much-needed changes to the structure of The Facebook Ads Academy and double down on growing it further. With a new team member on board, I can now afford that more easily.

Vlog

In September I decided to start documenting my life and launched a weekly vlog.

I loved creating these. I could connect with my audience on a more personal level. And it forced me to pay actual attention to my life events and proactively think about it.

Even though the response was incredible and people were expecting to get these every Wednesday, I couldn't deliver on my promise as I imagined.

Because of the increased amount of client work in the last months of 2017 I had to dedicate my full focus to things that brought me money in the bank. So I paused the weekly vlog for the time being.

That said, I miss that personal connection my vlog helped me establish. So I'll be bringing these videos back in 2018. Just watch!

New webpage

I feel deeply ashamed when faced with the fact that I have been planning on relaunching my webpage since the beginning of 2016.

For two whole years, I've been meaning to revamp my webpage, because the old one wasn't an accurate representation of the growth I've seen and services I started offering.

I've been playing with several ideas since then, from purchasing a different Wordpress Theme, to building a custom webpage. And all this time my old and incredibly outdated webpage was just sitting there.

At the end, I got so frustrated with the long decision-making process, that I sat down one evening and launched my new page with Squarespace.

This allowed me to update my online presence, rewrite my service offerings, refresh my testimonials, so new clients can get a better and more true representation of what Super Spicy Media is.

I do have plans for launching a custom-made webpage in the near future. But until then I don't have to worry about potential clients being scared away because of the poorly-looking webpage that doesn't communicate the professional work of Super Spicy Media.

I got married!

We've been together for almost 7 years now. He's the best husband and absolute best friend without whom I can't imagine my life with. And our wedding was the perfect way to showcase our complete devotion.